Former college president honoured with a Limerick Person of the Month award

FORMER President of Mary Immaculate College (MIC) Eugene Wall has been honoured as Limerick Person of the Month for his contributions to education in Limerick. 

Arriving at the college in 1980 with the intention of only staying there for a year, but ending up permanently moving to Limerick over 40 years ago, Mr Wall said he was “absolutely delighted” and “surprised” to win Limerick Person of the Month. 

“It’s a great honour,” he said upon receiving the award at the Clayton Hotel in Limerick city this Wednesday afternoon. 

“I spent a total of 44 years at MIC, the fact I stayed so long is a real indication of how much I enjoyed it. Working with the students and staff there was a real boon.

“I filled a number of roles during that time, the first and one that drew me to the place was lecturing. I so much enjoyed teaching psychology.”

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Prior to his fruitful career at MIC, Mr Wall graduated from UCD in 1975 with a degree in psychology. He was awarded a UCD postgraduate scholarship and undertook a research MA in the field of developmental psycholinguistics. 

Later, the Dublin native qualified as a primary teacher from Froebel College and taught part-time in several third-level institutions in Dublin before moving to Raheen in Limerick. In 2001, he qualified from UCD with a PhD in Education. 

Eugene taught developmental psychology and educational psychology in MIC from 1980 to 1998. For the latter part of that time, he was also Assistant Dean Academic Affairs in the College of Education of the University of Limerick (UL). 

Following his appointment to the role of Registrar/Vice-President Academic Affairs in 1998, he continued to lecture part-time.

He now lives in Annacotty with his wife, Jennifer. While he has retired from his post as President of MIC, Mr Wall is enjoying his retirement thus far, despite a recent hip replacement. 

“It's partially a fake retirement! I have a number of things I am involved in, I chair a number of boards, but other than that I am finding time to do things that it wouldn’t have been possible to do before.

“I travelled a bit, to Greece, which is something I wanted for a while. 

“I also am learning to play the piano! That is something I would have loved to do when I was younger. I also spend a lot of time cooking and seeing my grandchildren.”

Limerick Person of the Month is sponsored by the Limerick Leader, Southern and the Clayton Hotel.